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Saturday, December 27, 2014

The story of Airtel (and other Indian MNOs)plan to surcharge VoIP services (see "Indian MNOs to Surcharge VoIP Traffic" - here) develops in two directions, as reported by FirstPost:

As happened in other countries after such intention had been stated (Singapore, Netherlands), the Indian regulator "will look into Airtel’s plan to charge separately for Internet call services (VoIP) offered by apps like Skype, Viber and Line that will cost up to Rs. 10,000 per GB on 2G network and up to Rs. 4,000 per GB on 3G network to a user .. 'We will look into it. Government will come back with structured response,” Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad[pictured]said on the sidelines of ‘Good Governance Day’ event organised by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology"

See "Govt to look into Airtel’s plan to charge more for VoIP calls: Ravi Shankar Prasad" - here.

And Airtel insists - "Airtel has gone ahead and announced its VoIP data pack. The VoIP pack will cost prepaid Airtel customers Rs 75 for 75MB of data over a 28-day period ..According to the statement, Airtel claims that the current VoIP model is not sustainable in its current form hence the need for an additional data pack. “Our voice services that are enjoyed by every one of our customers provides us the capacity to continuously invest in and upgrade our networks on an ongoing basis. We, therefore, believe that VoIP services in their current form are not tenable for us as a business. As a result we will charge separately for VoIP services,” says the statement".

See "Airtel wants users to pay more for Internet calls: A look at its new VoIP data packs" - here.